Just found cockroaches the size of hamsters in my coop. HELLLPPP!!!!!

[seminolewind]

I use Home Defense. I spray the walls and along the edge of the floor. The good thing is that the roaches don't eat it. All they do is walk across it. Once it's dry it's pet safe. (unless your pet is a roach)

In Florida, the roaches are so big they smile at you, LOL I would go absolutely nuts if I didn't have Home Defense. My last house hold spraying gave me 14 months of protection.

I'll bet Texas roaches are big enough to chase with a horse and rope.

 

[Quackers Mama]

I use Home Defense.  I spray the walls and along the edge of the floor.  The good thing is that the roaches don't eat it.  All they do is walk across it.  Once it's dry it's pet safe.  (unless your pet is a roach)

In Florida, the roaches are so big they smile at you, LOL  I would go absolutely nuts if I didn't have Home Defense.  My last house hold spraying gave me 14 months of protection.

I'll bet Texas roaches are big enough to chase with a horse and rope.   

that's an understatement, I hate walking outside at night. I feel like I have a million eyes staring at me. I absolutely hate roaches. I'm from California, so when I came out here to Houston & saw my first massive beast I freaked out lol. Then when I found out they fly I wanted to book the first flight back home. I'm so glad my 5 cats are such great roach killers. The ones who creep inside only make it out dead. I hope my Muscovy duck Quackers will learn roaches = yummy lol, when he gets housed outside.
One time (before I had my cats) I was laying in bed with my daughter who was about 15 months at the time & felt something tickle my arm. I just brushed it off thinking it was my daughters hair from the fan blowing her hair. After the third time I took my phone & shined the light & looked down & saw a massive beast with glowing eyes staring back at me! I pushed it off & it ran towards my daughter. I grabbed her by her leg (it was the first thing I could grab ) & pulled her off the bed. Then ran & turned on the light & stood at the side of the bed looking for this horrendous thing. Then I saw it rear it's huge ugly head over the other side of the bed. I don't remember much after that, just the look on my daughters sleepy face rubbing her eyes wondering what I was doing running around & yelling "I'm gonna get cha sucka, your not smarter than me!". I can laugh now, but man that traumatized me.

 

[laughingdog]

maybe yall need bb guns.. all our. ritters eat roaches, but we try not to over feed them either, n leave a little light on at night so chooks can snack.

 

[seminolewind]

Here they call them Palmetto bugs which is another name for the American cockroach. Where German cockroaches love living inside and sharing food with you, these roaches tend to live outside and seem to not enjoy inside as much. The ones I find are never where food is. They are always running across the living room or bathroom, or even bedroom. Yes they do fly. They hide on vertical surfaces. If you chase one, at 10 minutes, they are exhausted and can't run fast anymore. Some just stop and sit there.

We all become very practiced down here, LOL

I did come in once with one in my hair. Creepy.

 

[nayeli]

I've been finding a couple inside!! YUCK not as big as hamsters though and all dead thanks to my wolf dog haha my hero!

 

[laughingdog]

I wish i had any and all those huge roaches outside. my foul would go berserk.

 

[Bean789]

Somehow, I just found this thread and read it through. Made my day! I have laughed openly but thankful my co-workers (yep, supposed to be working right now) are used to my cackling. As I always explain, I am so very new to the chicken world and find them very interesting and funny in their habits and behaviors. My 8 pullets free range for an hour or so on the afternoons I manage to get home before dark. Their favorite place to go as soon as they are out of the chicken yard is under the banana tree for some dust bathing...and they always seem to find a roach or two in the dirt.

On the evenings when I don't get home in time, my daughter or granddaughter locks them in their coop and I always walk out and talk to them later and say good night. On a recent occasion such as this, as I was nearing the coop, I hear this commotion going on and ran to see if something had gotten in there with them. Opossums and raccoon inhabit my area and I was terrified one of them had gotten inside. Nope. My girls were dive bombing their coop bottom in various areas capturing and eating the palmetto bugs, ROACHES, crawling around their coop, and then fighting over them. Geesh! So this is what they do at night when I think they are resting up for egg laying the next day. It is a wonder they get up the next morning with the sun rise. LOL

I grew up in Tampa, FL and roaches have always been my weakness. If I see a roach in the house, NO ONE goes to bed until it is dead and the body has been found! I have been known to re-arrange an entire living room full of furniture looking for the evidence. And I have been known to not only use an entire can of bug spray but also smash them with a flip flop when I can get close enough to not put myself in danger. They fly you know....and straight at your head....and make you trip over the furniture you just moved into your path. They are devious creatures!

BTW, I sprinkle DE in the coop all over the place when it gets a cleaned out and refreshed. It does not seem to sway the attitude of spiders or palmetto bugs.

 

[Clucked Up]

D**n, I love you for that thread!

 

[seminolewind]

I live in Florida too, and roaches really terrify me. So my best friend is Home Defense. I spray around the outside of the house and windows, spray here and there inside like inside the cabinets and NO live roaches for a year. I do my coop and I don't see any more for a long time. I just spray the bottom of the wall all the way around, let it dry and that's it.

If you chase one, just know that they don't have endless energy and poop out after about 5-7 minutes, and justt sit there. Then I smash them.

 

[Jacob Duckman]

The ideal solution would be to add a bird who loves digging up and eating roaches. I have a crested duck who will eat anything that moves including giant cicadas.